Hope sneezes again. “I’m the most likely person to get stalked because of my stupid job, and so I’m the most likely person to have brought this on us.”
“No,” Ash says fiercely. “Whoever isdoingthis brought this on us. No one else. Not you or me or Caro.”
Hope wipes her eyes. “Thanks, Ash.”
“How did you figure out this was happening?” Ash asks. “Do you have a background in hacking? Cybersecurity? Are you a tech expert?” Then she snorts with laughter. “Sorry,” she says. “I know they aren’t called tech experts. And I know this isn’t funny.”
“It’s fine,” Caro says. “We have to laugh or we’re going to scream. This is creepy as hell.”
Ash cocks her head. “And, Hope, you kind ofarea tech expert. Look atSpyFi.” She’s referencing a popular high-tech heist movie that Hope filmed several years ago, the one where both her black leather catsuit and sarcastic one-liners went viral in all the best ways. “You had to know whatsomeof that jargon meant.”
“Actually,” Hope says, “I didn’t. But wedidhave this brilliant hacker as a consultant on that film. And she’s the one who’s helping me figure this out.” Her voice is steady. She’s back in control.
“Thank goodness,” Ash says. “What’s her name?”
“Actually, I’m not sure sheisa girl,” Hope says. “None of us ever met her in person. We were only allowed to talk to her a few times, at night, and she—or he, or they—always used voice-changing software. But she does go by the code name Jane Marple. So that’s why I keep sayingshe.”
“Well,thatfeels a little on the nose,” Ash says. A brown paper lunch bag blows past behind her.
“She told me she uses a different name for each job,” Hope says. “We got this one for obvious reasons.”
“I also hope it means she’s, like, eighty-five,” Ash says. “I hope she knits like Jane Marple, too.”
“And you trust her?” Caro asks.
“More than I trust anyone else for this,” Hope says.
“How does she think it happened?”
“Someone logged on to the initial meeting without anyone else knowing,” Hope says. “They didn’t reveal they were there, and none of us noticed it.”
“The bookstore person,” Ash says. “The liaison. And all the people who work at the bookstore. That has to be where the breach happened, right? That makes the most sense.”
“Well,” Hope says, “that did seem likely. But I paid Jane to go to San Francisco, and she checked out a few things, like which employee physically set up the call that night and which computer they used. She also hacked into their system. She doesn’t think that’s where it came in.”
“Hacking into their system is for sure not legal,” Caro says.
“It for sure isn’t,” Hope agrees. “Anyway, she also managed to hack the employees’ personal computers, and there’s nothing there, though she admits she’d have to burglarize their individual apartments to be sure, and that’s not her specialty.”
“Right,” Caro said. “Andalsoillegal.”
“So when we find who’s been watching us, what are we going to do to them?” Ash asks. The others stare at her. A wind ruffles her long, loosehair, but her expression is steel. “What?” she says. “These are our lives that are being spied on. Our friendship. Ourfamilies.”
“You’re turning out to be kind of a hardass,” Hope says, admiration in her tone. “Now I kind of feel like Ishouldhire someone to break into their apartments. How much do you think that would cost?”
“Hope,” Caro says. “How much money have you spent on this already?”
“An unholy amount,” Hope says.
“I’m sorry,” Caro says. “And thank you.”
“Me too,” Ash says. “When did you realize that someone was watching us?”
“About two weeks ago,” Hope says.
“Why did you wait so long to tell us?”
“I wanted to be sure, and I wanted to figure out the best way for us to talk,” Hope says. “We still need to communicate on our regular phones and keep having our meetings on our regular computers, unless we want them to know that we’re on to them.”
